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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Benjamin Olson" data-source="post: 8345332" data-attributes="member: 6988941">The term "referee" generally refers to a non-player in a game who ensures that official rules are strictly followed between two antagonistic sets of players. I think it's not really a good fit for what a Dungeon Master does as a) I believe they are themselves a "player", just one with a very different role; b) I believe that even at a table where it is agreed that official rules are strictly followed this agreement should still be secondary to ensuring that the game is fun, etc, in a way not comparable to the rules enforcing mandate of a referee in most games that traditionally employing such a person, and c) I hope few D&D tables involve two antagonistic sets of players who need a neutral arbiter between them.And whether or not you agree on these particular points or not, I hope anyone can agree that there are a number of ways in which the role of a DM is not particularly like the role of a referee in, say, a basketball game, and thus it makes sense to not use the same term for the two, and fortunately we have terms like "Dungeon Master" and its various equivalents in other ttrpgs so that we don't have to awkwardly refer to them as "referees".I sense the reason some people are perhaps drawn to the term is because they like the implications it makes about the particular ethos with which they approach their role. I would say this is precisely why the term is a dangerous one to use, as it interpolates a lot of implications into how the Dungeon Master should operate that don't necessarily fit, simply on the basis of a familiar word used when the hobby was new and "Dungeon Master" did not yet have a meaning that readers would readily understand. By all means DM more "like a referee" than the norm (whatever that is) if you like, but please don't decide to do so on the basis of ill-fitting 1970s terminology.</blockquote>

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